What to use instead of parsley
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Fresh green finish that cuts fat
Flat-leaf parsley is mostly water plus volatile green aroma. Scattered on at the end it lifts the top of a rich dish without adding a flavour of its own that competes with the sauce.
Pale inner celery leavesRan out
1:1 chopped
More bitter and saltier-tasting, and stronger, so a little goes further. Good on braises and soups, fights with delicate fish.
Carrot tops, leaf onlyRan out
1:1 chopped
Grassier with a carrot edge. The stems are tough and stringy, so strip them off.
ChervilRan out
1:1
Softer and faintly aniseed. It bruises within a minute of touching a hot plate, so it goes on at the table.
CilantroRan out
use 2/3 as much
Takes over the dish. It works on anything already heading toward cumin or lime and derails anything French.
What doesn't work: Dried parsley. What parsley gives at the end is volatile aroma and wet crunch, and drying removes both; on steak frites it is green dust that tastes faintly of hay.
Bulk raw green in a chopped herb sauce (chimichurri, gremolata, salsa verde)
Here parsley is the body of the sauce rather than a garnish, so the swap has to survive being chopped, salted and left in oil and acid for an hour without collapsing into slime.
Cilantro, stems includedRan out
1:1 by volume
Sharper and more perfumed. A chimichurri made with it tastes Colombian rather than Argentine.
Half parsley, half mintRan out
replace up to half the parsley by volume
Cooler and sweeter, and the sauce reads Levantine. Very good on lamb, odd on steak.
Carrot tops plus extra lemonRan out
1:1, plus 1 extra tsp lemon juice per cup of herb
Slightly bitter, which the extra acid balances. The sauce comes out darker green.
What doesn't work: Basil in a chimichurri. It bruises black within minutes in oil and vinegar and its sweetness fights the garlic and oregano; what you get is a broken pesto that tastes of neither dish.
Parsley stems carry more flavour than the leaves and none of the bitterness. Chop them into the sauce and keep the woody ends for stock.